U.D.P. Election Manifesto Promises

The referendum didn’t figure into the United Democratic Party’s manifesto launch this afternoon. The glossy red and white document is in two parts; the first section deals with the U.D.P.’s pledges for 2012 to 2017 and the second part lists its accomplishments in the last four years. With a room full of standard bearers and loyal supporters, Prime Minister Dean Barrow said the tenets of its election platform are pro-poor, for accountability and transparency as well as for sovereign muscular nationalism. The U.D.P. is promising an oil refinery, more mortgage write offs and lower interest rates. News Five’s Andrea Polanco reports.

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

The United Democratic Party, both thirty one candidates contesting the March 7th General Elections and close to three hundred supporters filled the River Hall Room at the Biltmore, for the launching of the U.D.P.’s 2012-2017 Manifesto. And in his opening words, Prime Minister Barrow told the gathering the predicted landslide victory even has him concerned:

Dean Barrow

Dean Barrow

“We will win a massive unprecedented victory for our second term. But that is precisely why I am a little bit worried. I suspect that I will have quite a job on my hands to deal with the exceedingly large number of successful united Democratic Party candidates.”

And the reason for that anticipated victory is contained in the pages of this two part publication, where the U.D.P. Action Plan set on tenets of, ‘Always for the People’ highlights the accomplishments of the last four years and the other half, listed the party’s pledge, should they be returned to office for second term:

Dean Barrow

“We will continue to walk in the path of political righteousness; that we will be always for the people, always on the side of the people, always at the side of the people and that we will produce for you the hard concrete quality of life improvements that you desire and deserve, but that at the same time, we are going to give you the good governance that is the hallmark of your United Democratic Party.”

Within the pages, the U.D.P. promises some of the usual infrastructure upgrade and over fifteen thousand lots. Principal among the UDP’s promises is a proposed oil refinery, which is expected to produce local fuel:

Dean Barrow

“We simply cannot countenance for much longer the situation in which at the pump locally, the people of this country are being swamped by too high fuel prices. Therefore the United Democratic Party will—within the shortest possible time—just so long as it takes to construct this thing, build a local oil refinery. We will turn Belizean crude into gasoline and diesel and kerosene and sell locally refined fuels to the Belizean people for lower, cheaper and stable prices.”

And to boost economic activities, the U.D.P. outlined a number of measures that they hope to put in place:

John Saldivar

John Saldivar, Standard Bearer, Belmopan

“The United Democratic Party will conduct a full review of the import duties regime with a view to rationalize it. Your next U.D.P. government will establish a national bank. Your next U.D.P. government will establish an insurance guarantee program for exporters.”

Also as part U.D.P. pro-people creed, the U.D.P. plans to establish a mortgage guarantee scheme to assist first-time homeowners to cover the ten percent down payment on mortgage loans of up to a hundred thousand dollars. Mortgage write-offs coupled with student loan write-offs from the DFC are also of high priority:

Dean Barrow

“And we are going to turn immediately after we are reelected to the DFC mortgage loans.But for sure, write-offs there will be and we’re not just going to concentrate exclusively on writing off mortgage loans, we are also going to be writing off student loans at the Development Finance Corporation.”

Eden Martinez, Toledo East Standard Bearer, brought back the Voice over Internet Protocol promising to extend the services:

Eden Martinez, Toledo East Standard Bearer

Eden Martinez

“What we have been waiting on which I believe we’ve been looking at from our first term will now come to reality. The next U.D.P. government will free up Voice over Inter Protocol to residential landline customers in the next few months to be eventually extended to mobile services.”

And already in the pipeline, the Prime Minister says the plans for reduced interest rates at the commercial banks may materialize before March seventh:

Dean Barrow

“The last thing that I want is something that we might accomplish even before the March seventh elections and that is to reduce the cost of capital in this country to reduce interest rates at the commercial banks.I have a meeting on Monday with the governor of the Central Bank and with all of the commercial bankers and I believe that that meeting will result in the kind of agreement that will see an immediate drop across the board in the lending rates of the banks of this country.”

Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.

The U.D.P. is also promising to build a road and bridge that will link Chetumal Street to the Western Highway. Last year, squatters were forcibly removed from the area. It led to a riot that turned violent between the squatters and police.

Viewers please note: This Internet newscast is a verbatim transcript of our evening television newscast. Where speakers use Kriol, we attempt to faithfully reproduce the quotes using a standard spelling system.

24 Responses for “U.D.P. Election Manifesto Promises”

A day ago someone stated that a refinery should be constructed in Belize, to lower the price of fuel that Belizeans pay at the pump, to which I agreed with. However we were swiftly educated by the “experts” that this was not a plausible task because of economic factors that would most definitely prohibit the reality if this ever happening. For chance of proving the naysayers wrong, it is my hope that whichever party forms the next government, plans on building a refinery comes to fruition.

oh come on !!! same promises from there first term washed up, splashed some cologne and we are supposed to buy this?? when will people wake up?? he thinks hes getting a second term… he will be very surprised. MR.COCKY is so full of it.

What about crime you hear nothing about crime and all the murders what about the 1000 murders that have occurred since udp has been in power you hear nothing about that and all the corruption going on in this gov. Do you think belizeans are blind we want you out bald head you and all your cohorts we know that you and your family are now very rich so please leave the poor belizeans alone and hit the road worse pm and gov. In the history of Belize.

Let me get this straight. GOB still hasn’t paid for BTL nor BEL, its crying about the superbond, but wait…a refinery will be built! LMAO!

Oh but wait, they’ll get the private sector to invest and do it. Of course, private investors will be falling over themselves to invest in a country with a reputation for taking private property without compensating owners, changing laws to influence pending court cases, and telling bondholders to go fxxx themselves. Oh yeah!

Oh how i hate to burst your bubble Mr. Barrow. You will have a rude awakening when the people come out by the hundreds and the thousands to vote you out. Have you forgotten that you promised to reduce the cost of living no matter what? You failed the country miserably in that aspect. Instead Belize is just known for the highest number of unemployment in it’s history. Crime is at an all time high. How can you say you are pro poor when poverty is at 60%???? What you do is a crime…trying to control a few poor people with a miserable stipend instead of providing jobs so they don’t need to depend on you. We have stopped imagining the possibilities, and we have gotten real. Come March 7th the people of Belize will get rid of you, your ministers and all your broken promises…

Your answer to crime is to pay the thugs about $300-$500 weekly to keep an eye on the streets yep thats their plan to have a safe Belize. While the rest of the Belizean people are working so hard paying taxes & social security to maintain this wonderful salaries to them. Yep welcome to your pledges…

Indeed you all are right! Refinery?! You got to be kidding me Mr. PM, who do you take us all to be?? The government cant even manage the country, reduce poverty, reduce crime, and he mentioned about building a refinery for cheaper fuel prices?? Come on! The people of Belize are so tired of all your empty promises. The PM and his govt was elected to bring about a positive change to Belize and what happened… Belize is in a deeper hole than ever before and corruption is at its highest.
When a government has failed a country to this extent and has called early elections is not a good sign. Now imagine 5 more years under this government. Honestly they don’t deserve or earn the right to be re-elected for another term. However the people of Belize will need to vote them out on March 7th. At this time only the politicians are living the life. It is a sight to see how arrogant they become when people tell them (GOB) the truth about the bad deeds and corrupt acts. Change is at hand, but Belizeans will need to act and not vote for them again.

How is a refinery plausible? They cost millions to build – who is paying for that? Also, where will the crude come from? They can’t refine BNE crude…they will lose out on the MILLIONS they get in taxes from the international sales at world prices. Now let’s say that they do use BNE crude…there isn’t enough crude to produce diesel and gasoline to satisfy the market needs and BNE doesn’t have a license block so they can’t find more. So someone please explain to me how this refinery will work? Seems like a ploy to get more votes!

I have to admit I was fooled by “Imagine the Possibilities” but now please. can’t fix potholes but will build 4 lane highway, took 4years to start to build Kendall but promising to build Chetumal St Bridge. they promise this fortpoint project every year for the past 4 years. they put the man that was starting his refinery in jail, now Barrow comes and says upon relection he will immediately build a refinery. VOIP, he can open that with the click of a button, that takes no building, oh he also promised voip for the past 4 years.
Barrow and his crowd are like that abusive, drunken husband who beats his hard working wife every weekend and every Monday promises to change and do better. WE all know how this story ends. Please People for the good of the country BARROW MUST GO.

Agreed Reader and Imaginative… Building a refinery makes no business sense. It will cost Millions indeed because it will need state of the art technology, it will need a depot to store all the raw material and final products, and also an extensive pipeline network. Also do we know if Belize has that amount of crude oil in order to pay back the investment for the refinery??
More important Belize is too small of a market they would need to export. Exporting makes no sense either because there is Venezuela, US, and Mexico which are BIG and ESTABLISHED countries for Crude Oil and Petroleum Products and they have the facilities in place such as big ports. Since 2009 to present many refineries around the world have closed down due the recession and lower Oil revenues. ALSO How will Belize handle the POISONOUS FUMES that will be released into our air and the MASSIVE POLLUTION that refineries create. Refineries can cause serious environmental problems.
Ultimately GOB will want to use tax payers money or should i say our money to build their out of this world pet projects. Lets hope this is only political lie to fool the people. Cuz like Imagine said we done know who wa benefit the most– The Royal Family. Cuz i heard from reliable sources that they have already bought a large chunk of land in Spanish Lookout close to BNE in the name of Kimano.

Rod you are politically blind idiot. All you post have always been on murders under the UPD government. However don’t be so dumb as to not do due diligence and do some research and you will see that murders also occured under the previous administration. Why do you have to prove to the masses what a total idiot you are. However like one person wrote, refering to you, idoits speak because they must. Since you are so stupid and make ridiculous statements, I have done some research for you. Please feel free to cut and paste the links below, that report on crimes under the previous administration. Dont continue to be an idiot and make statements of substance instead of noise like an idiot. Keep in mind that all the postings took place in the period of a 2 months. Stop being a non-sensical idiot.

prices have been rising steadily in the past few weeks on skyrocketing crude oil. While gas price in the U.S, other countries are saddled with high prices at the pump that would give an American a heart attack.
ten most expensive regular gasoline (not premium)at pump are:
#1 Eritrea $9.58 U.S per gallon
#2 Norway $9.33 U.S per gallon
#3 Rome $8.51 U.S per gallon
#4 Denmark $8.48 U.S per gallon
#5 Monaco $8.46 U.S per gallon
#6 London $8.12 U.S per gallon
#7 Paris $8.06 U.S per gallon
#8 Hong Kong $7.85 U.S per gallon
#9 Berlin $7.76 U.S per gallon
#10 Tokyo $7.15 U.S per gallon
and we complain about the price, probably we’re on the 15th place in the world records. not bad it looks but for the Belizean people it’s still killing us daily to run to work or do our local business using the gasoline everyday.
Belize $5.74 U.S per gallon

Bzean pride unfortunately your comparison is flawed because while the price is higher those countries minimum salary is maybe five times ours so relatively we spend 56% of our minimum salary per day on a gallon of fuel while they spend say 10%. Therefore the cost is more prohibitive in Belize.

To all the people above.what you are saying true, but the poor people of Belize do not have a computer to read what you all are saying.They think the government is doing somethig for them when given 5lbs of rice . Our government is disabling the Belizean when they give hands out.

The costs above are known costs; the cost of refining will depend on the plant, but I’m willing to bet it’s around $1.00 BZD per gallon minimum. Giving you a pump price of $10.68. Keep in mind that the quality of the diesel produced will also have to be verified with the sulfur content of the diesel being the primary issue since later model vehicles cannot handle high sulfur content through their injection and emmissions systems.

Usable gasoline is even more pricey as the excise tax on that is $3.20 to $3.40 Belize depending on whether it is premium or regular.

My opinion, a refinery makes sense only if you produce products that are comparable to or better than those on the market today. For a reputable company to build such a refinery will cost between $30-50 Million BZD. With such a large investment, the crude supply for the refinery had better be secure far into the future.

dean barrow thinks he can fool the belizean people again? da fool d talk but da no fool di listen”…we want the cost of living to go down its gone too high since barrow came in to power he said he will bring down the cost of fuel to $7.00 now its $12.59 and going up,crime is out of control,UNEMPLOYMENT IS HIGH,CORRUPTION IS HIGH, although he said he will file his machete its 2 sides and chopup corruption and he is the same one tolerating corruption,because he loves the millions of $$$$$$$$$ he have gotten/stolen our country and its people,the kendal bridge its been 4 long,long years and it cannot finish yet,how much do the people have to wait more? its seems the people of southern Belize do not vote? pls people its time to vote them out before we lose our country in the hands of theze ‘UDP CROCODILES”.

Well if u guys watch what is happening in our country that has been happening for years know is that we don’t want an oil exploration in our country especially offshore because of the risk it on our natural heritage or in our protected area that’s why it’s called protected….We as belizean’s should respect that what has been to us even when the U.D.P administration has not kept it’s word since he has been in power and try’s to do everything at the last minute so it looks like he did..

WE tayad afa all this bul**** weh deh di try put pan we so dat we think deh duh something……..